An Exploration of the Wonders.

Hello and welcome back to another post of my journey with Stevenage Borough FC, where I have just got them promoted from L1 in my debut season into the Championship, their highest every league they’ve ever been in. We’ll also be playing in a different stadium until March (see my last post), but first of all, let’s see what I set my expectations too;

Obviously I set my expectations as to avoiding relegation, and I was given £704k in transfer and around £19k in wages to sign some players that will keep us in this division. I’ll be delighted wherever we finish, as long as it isn’t in the bottom 3.

So there’s my expectations, but let’s see who left the club over the summer;

A lot of players left the club after our transition from L1 to the Championship, and all left the club for free except for Matthew Ball who joined Cheltenham on loan. All these players weren’t good enough and were stuck taking up room in the reserves/first team and gave me a load of extra money to spend on wages, allowing me to sign more players.

So there’s the players that left – who joined?

Fredrik Stoor, End of Contract, Valerenga

I signed Stoor on a pre-contract deal in January when I was offered him by his agent, and I instantly snapped him up considering he has 15 caps from Sweden and is rated 4 stars. He’ll be my first choice RB, and can also play LB if needs be.

Craig Conway, Loan UEOS with £8k p/m fee, Cardiff City

I was pleased to bring in Conway as the quality of our wingers was poor and they are vital to the goals we score as they provide most of the assists, so for an £8k a month deal for a 2 1/2 star winger it’s not a bad deal. He brings experience and can play on both wings, and will be used in rotation mostly.

Declan Rudd, Loan UEOS with £50k p/m loan fee, Norwich City

We definitely paid over the odds for Rudd but I was pleased to sign him as we were desperate for a GK after Murphy’s loan deal ended. The 23 year-old is rated 3 stars and will challenge with Mannone for the first team spot, but is excellent back up.

Conor Clifford, Free Contract

A first of two former Chelsea youngsters, 22 year-old Irish CM Conor Clifford was a good deal for us seeing as he’s young and has 3 1/2 star ability. He can become a mainstay in midfield for us with other start Greg Tansey and hopefully he can chip in with a few goals and assists as well – his 18 work rate a stand-out attribute.

DJ Campbell, Free Contract

I needed more strikers after releasing Dani Lopez and Baker’s loan deal ended and I was happy to get Campbell seeing as he’s a good striker that gets a fair amount of goals. He is 32 now and is rated just 2 stars, which I think is quite harsh, but I’m sure he can chip in with a few goals in the rotating role he will play.

Shaun Derry, Free Contract

Another former QPR player after Campbell that signed was Shaun Derry, who we had on loan for 3 months last season. He’s 36 and will be retiring at the end of the season but he will be decent on a 1 year deal, despite being rated just 2 stars, and will be backup.

Ben Gordon, Free Transfer

The other signing formerly of Chelsea’s academy was Ben Gordon, the 23 year-old LB joining us and will be our first choice LB rated at 3 1/2 stars. I’m pleased again as he’s young and feel he can again, like Clifford, be a mainstay in the team.

Vito Mannone, Loan UEOS with £10k p/m fee, Arsenal

I was delighted to bring in Vito Mannone on loan from Arsenal as he’s a good GK for this level. Rated at 3 1/2 stars, I’m delighted that our parent club have made the fee just £10k p/m meaning we save money and have a good GK, who will probably edge ahead of Rudd and start most games.

Paul McShane, Free Contract

My final signing was Irish CB Paul McShane, again on a free. I was delighted to get McShane as he’s an experienced Irish international and rated 4 stars, and will be my first choice CB and at 28, he still has a good few years in him yet.

So there’s my signings, but how did pre-season go for Stevenage?

It was a decent pre-season for Stevenage where we picked up a few wins but also a few losses. We thumped non-league Biggleswade Utd 8-0 in our first friendly before coming 3rd in our own cup competition as we beat FC Urecht 4-2 in the 3rd place playoff after losing 1-0 to Everton in the other game. I was annoyed to lose 3-1 to L1 side Tranmere but we made up for it with a 2-1 win over Alcoron before we lost 3-0 to Torino and 3-1 to parent club Arsenal.

Welcome back to another post about my quest to get Stevenage into the PL and become one of the biggest teams in English football. At the start of 2013 we sit on top of the L1 table and after no one left in January, I did bring 3 players in on short-term loan deals;

I brought in some PL steel in the form of Marc Albrighton from Villa, Victor Anichebe from Everton and Shaun Derry from QPR, all on 3-month loan deals. I’ll use these 3 all as starting players and I really do hope they can boost our promotion bid and give us those few extra players seeing as our squad is currently quite small.

So there are the extra additions, but what were our results like?

It was another decent second half of the season for Stevenage as we continued our fight for promotion. Our first 3 fixtures of 2013 were in 3 different competitions – first off we won 2-1 away at Bury, before we beat L2 Bradford 1-0 in the FA Cup but were knocked out by TCQ (yes, I forgot to remove them again) on penalties in the JPT. Our first score loss of 2013 didn’t come until we played Leyton Orient at home, where we lost 1-0 – we then went a run of not winning in 7 games, including losing 3-1 at home to Swansea in the FA Cup after earning a replay with a 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium. But after ending that run with a 4-1 win over Walsall, we didn’t lose a single game until the end of the season – in that run we claimed a vital 3-1 victory away at Tranmere as well as beating Sheffield United 2-0 at home. So did we get promoted?

We did it! We won the L1 title after beating Sheffield United 2-0 and finished 5 points ahead of second placed Coventry, who also got promoted. It was fantastic that we got promotion considered that we were predicted to finish just mid-table at the start of the season.

After getting promotion we also received some awards;

I was delighted to see that I was awarded Manager of the Season and Jon Ashton was also inducted into the Team of the Year after a string of amazing performances at the back for us.

I was also presented with this message at the end of the season;

The stadium is going to be expanded by 3221 seats, meaning that we’re going to have to relocate to the ‘National Hockey Stadium’ until March. All I’m going to say is;

1) The ‘National Hockey Stadium’ is in Milton Keynes – which is an hour’s journey from Stevenage.

2) The ‘National Hockey Stadium’ was knocked down in 2007 and is now the Network Rail HQ.

Sort it out Football Manager.

Hello and welcome back to another post about my challenge to get Stevenage into the PL for the first time ever, and after having a very successful pre-season we have now started the new season, season 2012/2013. With a 46 game league fixture list as well as games in the FA Cup, League Cup and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy we had a lot to aim for, so let’s see how we’ve done so far in the first half of the season;

It’s been a wonderful first half of the season for a club predicted just mid-table mediocrity in L1 and there’s now a good chance we might get promoted to the Championship this season. The season started off with an away game at Yeovil Town in the League Cup and two goals in the final 4 minutes of the game from my namesake Daniel Baker gave us a 2-1 win. Then followed an amazing run where we won our first 6 league games of the season, without conceding (we didn’t concede in the league in fact until matchday 9), and we had some great wins, including a 3-0 win over Scunthorpe and a 1-0 win v Coventry. Sandwiched in between that was an amazing 3-2 win away at Birmingham City in the League Cup 2nd round, where Cristiano Zanetti got a goal and an assist on his debut to give us a famous win. After our great winning run we were halted a bit by two frustrating 0-0 draws on the trot but got back on track with a 3-1 win over Hartlepool before we were finally beaten 2-1 by Leyton Orient on matchday 10, our first loss of the season. Just before that was another league cup game where we went to local rivals Charlton – and we pulled off another incredible result as we beat them on pens after a 1-1 draw to set up a 4th round tie away at Stoke Shitty, I mean City.  After the loss to Orient we went and lost again to Notts County before drawing with Crawley, but beat L2 Oxford 3-1 in the JPT and a 2-1 away win over Walsall sent us back on our way, winning our next 2 games before we were knocked out of the League Cup, losing 5-2 away at Stoke before we smashed Halifax Town 4-0 away in the FA Cup 1st round. Then came another barren run as we drew our next 3 games against fairly easy teams, somehow not beating Bournemouth after leading 4-3 with a minute left, but again we were back on track as we won 1-0 away at Sheffield United and went on to win our next 4 games, including a great 5-1 away win at Preston, our best performance of the season so far. But after the win in the JPT QF we went on to not win in our next 6 league games, losing 2 of them, but we ended the year strongly with a 2-0 home win over Yeovil.

So after that pretty good first half of the season, how do we look in L1?

Brilliantly we are top of L1! After a fantastic start to the season we sit top of L1 with 54 points, a point clear of 2nd placed Tranmere and 3rd placed Crawley with a game in hand. It could be a lot bigger gap if we hadn’t drawn so many easy games, but I’m ecstatic with our position and really hope we get promoted this season.

Hello and welcome to my first post about Stevenage Borough FC, the club I am aiming to take to the PL after taking a sabbatical from the EAC. We are predicted to finish 15th in L1, but I think that prediction was a bit low so I decided to set my season expectations to ‘top-half finish’;

This gave me £183k to spend and about £7k in wages, which is pretty good for a L1 team. I won’t be aiming to sign people permanently from other clubs for fee’s – I will be aiming at the loan market and the free agents to keep costs down and not blow all my money in one transaction. So, first of all, let’s see the players that left Stevenage this summer;

All the players that left are of no use to me anymore and were sold to raise funds for new players and create squad space. The only player that moved for a free was CB/ST Darius Charles who joined Scunthorpe for £35k as he was not good enough. Cowan, Grant and N’Gala were all offered mutual terminations but rejected so were released – and I didn’t have to pay any compensation which was good. Sinclair and Shroot went to BSP clubs Wrexham and Luton respectively to get some experience.

Now, for the incoming players (note Pritchard was sent back immediately after the scout report overrated him by 2 stars);

Brian Murphy, Loan UEOS, QPR

Brian Murphy was my first signing and as like I said he was the first of a number of loan deals from PL/Championship clubs. I needed a GK as my current one was 2 stars so I picked up 3 1/2 stars rated Murphy without having to pay any fee’s/wages, which is fantastic, saving me money and giving me a first choice GK.

Eric Lichaj, Loan UEOS, Aston Villa

I had a good RB but needed a much better LB and Lichaj can play in both full back positions so I was delighted to snap him up on loan, especially as I’m not paying any fee’s or wages. He is 24 and rated 3 1/2 stars and will be my first choice LB/RB depending on the fitness/injuries of other players.

Eggert Jonsson, Loan UEOS with £30k p/m fee, Wolves

Another loan signing came in the form of 24 year-old Icelandic Eggert Jonsson from Wolves until the end of the season, with us paying £30k a month for him. He is rated 3 1/2 stars at both RB and CM even though his natural position is DM, so he will definitely be switching between those two roles depending on the status of other players.

Michael Keane, Loan UEOS, Manchester United

My final loan signing was 20 year-old CB Michael Keane from Manchester United until the end of the season with us again not having to pay anything. He is rated 3 1/2 stars and will be tussling with other CB’s Roberts and Ashton to play there.

Cristiano Zanetti, Free Contract

It was a real coup for the club as we picked up former Inter, Juventus and Fiorentina midfielder Cristiano Zanetti on a free contract, adding a wealth of experience to the club. Rated at 3 1/2 stars he will be vying for the two starting CM positions and could be an excellent acquisition.

So there are all the signings Stevenage made over the summer, let’s look at how we did in pre-season;

I was delighted to see that we won all but one of our pre-season friendlies, remaining unbeaten in that time. The highlight was an amazing 2-1 friendly win over Liverpool at Broadhall Way, as well as beating Bayern II 5-2. We also drew 2-2 at home to Championship side Watford amongst other games.

Hello guys and as you can see from the title I am going to take a sabbatical from the European Alphabet Challenge, like Meow (I’ve just finished Holland by the way with Ajax). I am not quitting the save – just postponing it as the countries now are getting very crap, i.e. Hungary next then Iceland, with Ireland, Israel and Northern Ireland all to come.

So, I’ve decided to venture into a new save and go to an English club. I have decided to be Stevenage in L1, in a kind of challenge with Meow to see how well we can do considering we’re both starting in L1. I have managed Stevenage before in a kind of muck-around save, although it was about 7 years in and they had rich owners, although a large reason why I chose Stevenage was the fact that they currently have no debt and have a decent squad, with good budgets.

Pre-season post will come in due course.

Hello and welcome back to yet another European Alphabet Challenge post, where I am now in the year 2038 with a near-full newgen world with Panathinaikos in Greece. As I often do, I didn’t purchase anyone in January nor no-one left, so let’s see how we’ve done in the rest of season 2037/38;

It was a pretty good second half of the season, especially as we won the Greek Cup! We knocked out Panachaiki 7-2 in the 4th Round before scraping through 6-5 against Panionios in the Quarter Final, before we faced PAOK in the Semi-Finals – a really tough test. We made the first leg look easy though as we beat them 4-1 at home before a 3-3 away draw meant we scored 7 goals or more over two legs for the third time in the competition this season. In the final we came up against AEK Athens and after a 2-2, we clinched the trophy on penalties. In the EL we came up against Turkish side Galatasaray in the 1st round – two great performances saw us through 7-3 on aggregate and pitted us up for a tie v Dutch champions Ajax in the 2nd knockout round. An amazing performance in Amsterdam saw us draw 4-4, before a 1-1 draw in Greece sent us through to the Quarter-Finals in away goals where we would face Chelsea. That’s when it became 10x harder, and we lost 4-1 in Greece before losing 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, sending us out 6-1 on aggregate. In the Greek Superleague though we needed to catch up on that 7-point gap Olympiakos had over us, so how did we do it? Well, first off we won our first 10 league games of 2041, with out 2-2 draw with AEK halting that. That run included 5-2 wins over OFI and Panatilaikos as well as 4-2 win over PAOK. After that run was halted we were back on track with a 6-2 win over Xanthi before we clinched a crucial 1-0 away win at title rivals Olympiakos and after that we remained unbeaten until we were beaten 4-2 by Aris on the second-to-last matchday. So did we win the league?

We did it! We clinched the title, winning by 3 points over 2nd placed Olympiakos after overturning the 7 point gap we had at the start of the year. The Greek Superleague win coupled with the Greek Cup win means I have won all the trophies needed to win in Greece, and I can resign from this generally poor league;

Next up – Holland! I’m really excited for Holland as I’m a big fan of the Eredivisie, and after 2 seasons of constant simming I finally got a job;

Ajax! I was so happy that I got this job because they are one of the best teams in Holland, if not the best, and after they won the Eredivisie last season I’m straight away in the Dutch Super Cup.